Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Recapping The First Half of April 2012

The first half of April wasn't that unusually warm if you threw out the last couple of days. Temperatures for the month had only been a couple of degrees above average through last Saturday but thanks to back-to-back days of 82 and 89 for highs temperature averages for the month jumped to 3.8 degrees above average for the month so far (actual average of 55.3, average of 51.5). April, besides those two warm days, has been fairly typical but slightly mild on the whole as temperatures have not been excessively mild nor excessive cold.

If we held this pace (3.8 above) through the rest of the month, temperatures would end up around the 8th warmest on record. That's not likely to continue as the pattern supports a "typical" run of weather next week with temperatures close to, if not slightly below average.

The telling story, so far, is the dry weather. The region has picked up between two and four tenths of an inch of rain so far, running about 20% or less than normal in many spots so far for the month, with year-to-date percentages running around 50% for much of the region. With the potential for rain this weekend, perhaps a couple of inches of it, the rainfall deficit issue may be dampened somewhat.